greatly interrupted by suits. And it was prayed that it
might be ordained, that there should only be six attornies
for the county of Norfolk, the same number for Suffolk, and
two for the city of Norwich.

The profits of the law have also increased in proportion. We
now frequently hear of gentlemen at the bar making ten or
fifteen thousand pounds a year by their practice; and a
solicitor in one single suit, (the trial of Warren Hastings)
is said to have gained no less than thirty-five thousand
pounds! How different three centuries ago, when Roper, in
his life of Sir Thomas More, informs us, that though he was
an advocate of the greatest eminence, and in full business,
yet he did not by his profession make above four hundred
pounds per annum. There is, however, a common tradition on
the other hand, that Sir Edward Coke's gains, at the latter
end of this century, equalled those of a modern attorney
general; and, by Lord Bacon's works, it appears that he made
6000L. per annum whilst in this office. Brownlow's profits,
likewise, one of the prothonotaries during the reign of
Queen Elizabeth, were 6000L. per annum; and he used to close
the profits of the year with a _laus deo_; and when they
happened to be extraordinary,--_maxima laus deo_.

There is no person, we believe, who is acquainted with the
important duties of the Judges, or the laborious nature of
their office, will think that they are too amply
remunerated; and it is not a little remarkable, that when
law and lawyers have increased so prodigiously, the number
of the Judges is still the same. Fortescue, in the
dedication of his work, De Laudibus Legum Anglise, to Prince
Edward, says that the Judges were not accustomed to sit more
than three hours in a day; that is, from eight o'clock in
the morning until eleven; they passed the remainder of the
day in studying the laws, and reading the Holy Scriptures.

Carte supposes, that the great reason for the lawyers
pushing in shoals to become members of Parliament, arose
from their desire to receive the wages then paid them by
their constituents. By an act of the 5th of Henry IV.
lawyers were excluded from Parliament, not from a contempt
of the common law itself, but the professors of it, who, at
this time, being auditors to men